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A pair of Arita vases shaped as bamboo and tigers, Edo period (1615-1868), circa 1660 image 1
A pair of Arita vases shaped as bamboo and tigers, Edo period (1615-1868), circa 1660 image 2
A pair of Arita vases shaped as bamboo and tigers, Edo period (1615-1868), circa 1660 image 3
Lot 83

A pair of Arita vases shaped as bamboo and tigers, Edo period (1615-1868), circa 1660

1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

£2,000 - £3,000

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A pair of Arita vases shaped as bamboo and tigers, Edo period (1615-1868), circa 1660

The shaft of the vase modelled as bamboo growing out of rockwork, a tiger with curling tail standing in front of it, decorated in vivid overglaze polychrome colours of red, green, blue and black, 15.5cm high (2)

Footnotes

Provenance
Christie's 19 December 2014, Japanese Art at the English Court, lot 57
With Robert McPherson Antiques, 2016

Literature
White, Mary, Living at the Whites' House, Vol.4, 2023, p.330

Mary White comments on the charming naïveté of the tigers on these vase which were probably made for the export market. Typically the appearance of tigers and bamboo together symbolises the valour and indomitability of the samurai, however, the naïve execution of these tigers perhaps suggest this was not the potter's intention here. A similar pair is in the collection of Burghley House, see Alexandra Munroe and Naomi Noble Richard (eds.), The Burghley Porcelains, 1986, no.85. The vases in Burghley appear in the 1763 Inventory: 'the North drawing room....two china tygers.'

Additional information